PORTLAND, Ore., May 25, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digital growth company Urban Airship today delivered its one trillionth push notification for customers’ mobile apps, signaling a dramatic acceleration in customer adoption and usage of its flagship Urban Airship Engage solution. It was only on June 23, 2016, when the company delivered its 500 billionth push notification—the culmination of its seven-year history. Since then, Urban Airship set a daily record of 2.5B notifications on Election Day (Nov. 8, 2016), and now hits or surpasses that total often as 2B notifications has become the new daily average.
To add industry context to this milestone, Urban Airship’s data scientists analyzed iOS customer data from Q1 2015-2017 to offer new insights into key mobile app engagement trends:
- Opt-in rates edge up: The percent of app users opting in to push notifications has increased every year since 2015, growing from an average 40.4 percent to 43.6 percent in 2017
- Engagement is climbing: more and more people are responding to notifications with average notification engagement rates growing from 7.4 percent in 2015 to 9.6 percent in 2017
- Message delivery is getting more precise: the average number of notifications received per user per app has decreased every year: from 15.7 in Q1 2015 to 11.3 in Q1 2017
These are all signs that brands are getting smarter and more personalized in their notification strategies. It’s also important to note that the year-over-year averages above don’t reflect differences among app industry verticals and other times of the year[1], the growth in app audience sizes[2] or the fact that power users are more likely to receive more notifications[3] tailored to their behaviors[4].
Urban Airship has also experienced tremendous customer growth, now counting more than 45,000 apps across thousands of businesses that rely on Engage’s scalability, reliability and real-time automation to communicate with users.
Forrester Research recently recognized Urban Airship’s scale saying, “… Urban Airship sends more push notifications per month than about 10 of the smaller vendors combined” (Forrester Research Inc., “How To Choose A Mobile Messaging Vendor,” April 10, 2017). Note: copies available for a limited time.
Notifications Are Poised for Rich Growth
Urban Airship’s one trillion milestone only includes notifications sent to app users’ lockscreens. The company also sends in-app notifications, message center messages and notifications to website visitors, mobile wallet passholders and customers in other digital marketing channels like email or SMS. In addition, more than a dozen publishers now use Engage to create and deliver notifications to Apple News users that have opted in to their channel.
“The notification paradigm has now spread beyond smartphones and smartwatches, to the browser, the car, the home, chatbots and all the ‘things’ around us, and Urban Airship can power it all,” said Brett Caine, CEO and president, Urban Airship. “This glanceable, rich and interactive messaging format is rapidly expanding as a direct result of people’s rising expectations to be served exactly what they want, when and where they need it. That’s an incredibly powerful and motivating mission to help businesses achieve.”
Benjie Levy, COO and President of theScore, said: "The speed of our alerts is one of the reasons millions of fans all over the world rely on theScore as their sports app of choice. Working with Urban Airship has helped us exceed expectations in delivering scores, stats and news in real time, providing a best-in-class experience."
1 For three consecutive holiday seasons, retail apps have increased notification volume, average notification opt-in rates and average engagement rates.
2 comScore’s 2016 U.S. Mobile App Report found big gains in the number of apps with 10-20 million users, increasing 43 percent from 2014 to 2015, and 36 percent from 2015 to 2016.
3 Urban Airship’s recent study of 63 million new app users found those who receive frequent messaging have 90-day retention rates 3X to 10X higher than users who received none.
4 84 percent of retailers’ 2016 holiday notifications were highly targeted to shoppers’ location, preferences and behaviors, while only 12 percent of messages were broadcast to everyone.
About Urban Airship
Urban Airship® (www.urbanairship.com) is trusted by thousands of businesses to drive growth with mobile. Every day, marketers and developers depend on Urban Airship to deliver billions of digital moments through personalized, interactive notifications that inspire interest and drive action. Urban Airship is used by many of the world’s most admired companies, including Adidas, Alaska Airlines, The Home Depot, NBC Universal, Sky Media and Zillow.
For more information, visit www.urbanairship.com, read our blog and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn.